Outdoor Vinyl Summer Series: Lemons (2009)

Lemons on this 93 degree sunny breezy day takes me to Costa Mesa, California. I don’t think it gets this hot down there but forget about the weather. Costa Mesa is where Ty recorded this raw rock ‘n ripper in January 2009. Speaking of raw, Lemons is not Ty’s first or second jab at garage punk; he’d been playing in this style and styles that approximate this style since 2005, possibly even before that. His fun ass shakers as part of the Epsilons, Traditional Fools, and Party Fowl can be mined on the Internet and on vinyl and tape. So Lemons is considered Ty’s second solo album. SIDE A, particularly the last three songs “Lovely One,” “Can’t Talk,” and “Cents” are cantgetchaouttamymind top tier, extraordinary, I gotta stop using generic adjectives, HITS. 2009 was the year that ‘Garage’ was being infiltrated by the SCION though let’s be real, it was an amazing time for underground rock ‘n roll. Ty was a part of the crispier, bare, sloppy, loveable punk universe that Goner and In The Red had been nurturing for years, though at that time he was a rather new figure.

Anyhow, Ty – specially considering his solo performance (Lemons is in the full band, Ty on everything mold) – shows his colors as a dude with several sides to him, a harbinger of what would be: mellow (see Goodbye Bread and Sleeper) as on “Rusted Dust,” a midtempo tinkerer as on “Die Tonite,” and as a sludgy screamer on “Johnny,” which is in my ears a precursor to 2012’s Slaughterhouse. The assortment of sounds and approaches on Lemons is different from Ty’s more directed material meaning he probably had more solid ideas for the later albums. Regardless, everything he had done prior to this LP, up to it, and including 2010’s Melted (my sure favorite collection of fuzzy tunes) makes for a daunting discography! Ty is so deserving of the attention he’s received over the past few years and you can see he’s so comfortable playing the shit out of rock n roll. This is reflective of his live shows (also high high up there on funnest experiences). If he doesn’t make ya just want to mess around to your liking on your guitar, you might as well bop your head and move about. I know that can be equally exciting.